The village (in and about)

In this newsletter I present some of the works I made during my stay in the Périgord in France over the past two months.
Three of these works, '45°15′00″ N 1°06′19″ E', 'Merging Spaces' and 'Distances', were made in collaboration with other artists, residing in other places, using a mobile phone to connect.

Village

Men, looking at a village.
February 26, 2022.

HD-video with sound
05'14 min.

Click here to watch the video.

Sunday

Crossfaded stereo sound recording
of the first 15 minutes from sunrise at 8:20 AM (left channel)
and the last 15 minutes to sunset at 5:57 PM (right channel).

Stereo audio file, 15’00 min

Best listened to on headphones.
Please use a natural level of volume.

Maumont, January 30, 2022.

The start and end (of a walk)
February 7, 2022

Mixture
an exercise

In the morning I walked into the woods, carrying an audio recorder. After a while, I stood still and listened to the sounds around me. I pressed the record button.

About ten minutes later, I stopped recording.
I put the recorder down and pressed Play.

I stepped away a few feet
and listened to the mix of recorded sound and the live sounds around me.

February 6, 2022

45° 15′ 00″ N 1° 06′ 19″ E

I am here.
I call a friend and she answers the call.
Via a video connection I lead her through the scenery
and I describe in words what we are looking at.

My description structures the first few minutes of our conversation.
After that, our talk meanders naturally in all directions.

About eighty minutes later we disconnect.
I take a picture of the location and leave.

Thanks to Ienke Kastelein.

Merging spaces

Two simultaneous improvised sound walks in the streets of Valencia (Spain) and Badefols d’Ans (France).
Sounds were created through the improvised use of everything we encountered while walking.
The continuous exchange of the live sounds over the phone allowed for immediate feedback and reaction.

Both recordings were later superimposed in the editing process, retaining their stereo structure,
making them part of the same sound space.

Stereo audio file, 59’30 min

Best listened to on headphones.
Please use a natural level of volume.

Performed on January 15, 2022, 4 PM-5 PM.
In collaboration:
Elia Torrecilla in Valencia, 3928.9769,N 00022.4449,W.
and Frans van Lent in Badefols d’Ans, 4513.8125,N 00111.7601,E

Distances

I am standing in a field in the southwest of France.
My phone is in front of me in the grass.
A is standing in a field in the southeast of Scotland,
holding his phone to his ear.
Our phones are connected.

A is speaking. My phone is on speaker. His voice comes from the grass.
He articulates every detail he perceives around him. He describes what is very close and then what is farther away, until the horizon.

As A starts talking, I slowly walk backwards, away from my phone,
until I can no longer distinguish his voice.

Thanks to Andrew McNiven.